The Story

Black Tears was launched in October 2019 at the Bar Convent Berlin trade fair — the first spiced rum ever made in Cuba. It is the product of Ron Vigía, a joint venture between Norwegian founders Tore Villard and Hans Christian Holst and Spaniard Enrique Arías, working with two state distilleries in the Ciego de Ávila Province on the centre-north coast of Cuba.

The name comes from "Lágrimas Negras", the iconic 1929 bolero by Cuban composer Miguel Matamoros — a song about the bitter and the sweet living together, which is the central idea of the rum itself. Every bottle bears the seal of Vigía, marking it as a fully Cuban product produced inside the country rather than a Caribbean blend bottled elsewhere.

The category of Cuban spiced rum did not exist before Black Tears. Cuban rum tradition is built around the lighter Carta Blanca and aged Añejo styles drunk in the country's bars and dance halls. Black Tears was the first project to use that same Cuban distillate as the base for a spiced expression — Cuban liquid, Cuban ingredients, Cuban story. 3Two1 Drinks distributes Black Tears in Australia.

What Makes It Different

The base is a column-distilled Cuban aguardiente — sugar-cane spirit produced at 74% ABV in Ciego de Ávila — which is then macerated with locally sourced spices and bottled at 40%. The flavour spec is short and deliberate: coffee, cacao and ají dulce, the sweet Cuban chilli used across the island's cooking. Sugar content is restrained at 9 grams per litre — far below most "spiced rum" category benchmarks, which is why Black Tears reads dry and bitter rather than confected.

It is dry-spiced rather than sweet-spiced. Bartenders who already trust a Daiquiri or a Cuba Libre tend to take to Black Tears immediately, because it slots into Cuban classics the way a traditional anejo would — but adds the coffee-and-cocoa register of espresso and chocolate-forward builds. It is one of the only spiced rums on the market that holds its own in a stirred-down build, not just a long mixer.

Production sits inside the Cuban state distillery network, which means tight quality control on the source spirit, but the brand identity, recipe and bottling are governed by the Ron Vigía joint venture — a structure unique to Black Tears.

The Range

Black Tears is a single-expression brand — one bottle, one story. The depth is in how it builds in cocktails, not in line extensions.

How Bartenders Use It

Black Tears Daiquiri

Black Tears, fresh lime, sugar. Shake hard, fine strain. The coffee and chilli read as savoury bitterness against the lime — a darker, drier daiquiri than rum drinkers expect.

Cuba Libre

Black Tears over ice with cola and lime. The cacao and coffee layer cleanly over the cola; it is the modern Cuba Libre the bolero was waiting for.

Espresso Old Fashioned

Black Tears, a barspoon of demerara, a dash of chocolate bitters, espresso oils expressed from a fresh orange peel. Stirred, big rock.

Black Tears Negroni

Replace gin with Black Tears. The chilli and cacao push the Campari bitterness toward dark chocolate; sweet vermouth ties it together.

Frequently Asked Questions